Article Posted on : - Nov 26, 2010

Expedition 25 descends in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft to its landing site in Kazakhstan. A NASA photo

WASHINGTON (BNS): The three-member Expedition 25 crew from the International Space Station landed safely on board Russia's Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 03:46 am (GMT) on Friday.

The Soyuz spacecraft, carrying two US astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut, had undocked from the ISS earlier on Friday.

The members spent 5-1/2 month in the orbital station.

The trio, NASA Commander Doug Wheelock and flight engineer Shannon Walker and Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin spent a total 161 days aboard the station as members of Expedition 24/25 team, NASA said.

The Soyuz TMA-19 was launched from Kazakhstan's Beikonur space centre on July 16, 2010.

With the departure of the Expedition 25 team, Expedition 26 mission officially began at the ISS.

Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka will stay at the orbiting laboratory and wait for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-20 by next month.